Hey look, it’s a whisky review. As I said on April 1, I’m going to be posting far fewer whisky (and other booze) reviews going forward. The goal is to focus on drinking down my own collection of bottles and not on reviewing as many whiskies as I can. These two goals are not compatible, in case you’re wondering. Anyway, my review today is not of a whisky that was in my collection but of one I drank quite a bit of in my recent travels. I first purchased a bottle of this Indri after arrival in Bombay. I liked it so much as I drank it down over those five weeks that I purchased another bottle from duty free that I drank down over five weeks in Seoul. And then I purchased a third bottle that I drank part of in Delhi and left behind in my father’s bar. Yes, I thought it was a very good whisky, especially for the price. I was shocked, however, to learn in Delhi of the company’s controversial ownership. Frankly, it’s put me off the whisky more than a little. You may be wondering what I’m on about. Here’s the story.
Siddhartha Sharma, the founder of the company who is often quoted in press releases about the whisky, is better known in India as Manu Sharma. He is the son of Haryana politician and industrialist, Venod Sharma, and in his youth had a long history of brawling, intimidation of workers etc. which his family’s connections always extricated him from. In 1999 he shot and killed Jessica Lal, a model who was working as a bartender at a South Delhi party after she failed to serve him alcohol after midnight. In 2006 he was acquitted under highly dubious circumstances to say the least. After a huge public outcry he was apprehended again and in a new trial was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2020 he was released for good behaviour.
Now you might say he’s done his time—release from life imprisonment after 14 years is not unheard of in the Indian penal system. But it’s also not clear just how rigorous his imprisonment was. He was paroled multiple times and allegedly was involved in brawls on some of those occasions as well. For the last two years of his sentence he only spent the nights in jail. He may well be a genuinely reformed man now but if you were familiar with the world of the Indian rich and powerful you could be forgiven for entertaining doubts. At any rate, all of this has, unsurprisingly, been scrubbed from the company’s history and he goes entirely by Siddharth Sharma now.
Should that keep you from drinking Indri? I’ll leave that to you to decide. Here are my notes from the first bottle I purchased.
Indri, Trini — The Three Wood (46%; vatting of ex-bourbon, wine and PX casks; from my own bottle)
Nose: Light caramel, apricot, spicy oak, hints of incense. Sweet orange peel emerges as it sits. A few drops of water and the fruit expands: more of the apricot but it’s sweeter and brighter. A bit of cream emerges as well.
Palate: Leads with the spicy oak with everything else coming up behind. The orange peel emerges here as well and it gets sweeter on the whole. As on the nose with water.
Finish: Long. The spicy oak dominates. More fruit with time and then with water but the spicy oak never goes away.
Comments: A very good whisky, especially at its price point. A shame about the company.
Rating: 86 points.
whisky may taste great but it’s maker leaves a filthy after taste.Just shows that in India, even after conviction for cold blooded murder, you can escape lightly if u are well connected.For what he did, he should be behind bars for life with no option of parole
I’ve not bought another bottle since I learned the backstory.
Great!appreciate your sensitivity
Manu Sharma was freed from prison after for “satisfactory jail conduct”. Sabrina lal sister of Jessica lal said that she was at peace now, and when Manu Sharma walked out of jail after 14 years, there was no hate in her heart. “Little did I know that 14 years later, all that hate would simply vanish and I’d wish for nothing but happiness for the man who killed my sister,” she said. When her family has forgiven, what’s your point in bringing this up. refer https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/jessica-lall-couldve-been-anybody-sabrina-lall-on-sisters-murder-2413507
I don’t know much about the author, but I appreciate him for bringing this up—because the last thing we need is another Jessica Lal case. Her family may have truly forgiven, whether for their own peace or under pressure—who knows? But for me, Siddharth Sharma’s case is a stark reminder of how power allows people to commit something as heinous as murder and walk away with little more than a slap on the wrist. You may be okay with the blatant inequality in how the law is enforced, but some of us are not. I hate the cancel culture but this brand I truly believe should be cancelled
Her family is innocent, spiritual or probably even scar(r)ed to keep the memories alive. And it’s not necessary that these reasons apply to others. They’re done for good with a very difficult and long ordeal against powerful and ruthless set of people.
Manu Sharma or “whatever” he goes by now represents the filth of Indian businessmen-political nexus which constantly preys on the society to satisfy their large egos.
If you cannot resist a drink then go ahead but nobody is saying cheers.
Everyone should boycott Indri. It is tainted by the evil done by the producer of the whisky.
In recent days this post has been receiving a lot of traffic and I’ve also been receiving badly disguised spam comments praising the whisky–all feature generic fulsome praise, have similar gmail/yahoo accounts attached to them and all come from the exact same i.p address. I have not looked up the i.p address yet but before things get too embarrassing for those concerned, perhaps you could consider knocking it off?